This book of rituals published officially by the Priory of Sion’s Grand Master is the result of the historic ritual reform of 2017, following which the philosophical, initiatory and spiritual system was established, granting the actual Grand Master to be recognized by the highest Order’s echelons and subsequently invested by acclamation.
The Ritual body is composed of some elements dating back to French Christian initiation in the Merovingian era, in the period following the conversion of Clovis to monotheism, other elements instead belong to the Merovingian royal tradition or are of Templar and chivalric connotation, while others still come from Masonic influence, gospels or from some elements of Eastern philosophy that influenced Europe in the 19th century.
The traditional and initiatory elements dating back to the Merovingian era, constitute the oldest part of the ritual deposit of the Prieuré de Sion, if we do not consider the symbolic elements, which, as is well known, cannot be dated and which certainly already existed before the establishment of the regular initiatory Orders that have survived to this day, such as Freemasonry and initiatically legitimate Orders of chivalry.
It is fascinating in this regard, to underline how a common traditional root is the basis of every regular initiatory Order, justifying the sharing of certain symbolic elements and how, at the same time, an influence between these Orders may have taken place, in epochs subsequent to the first. known date of their formation.
In the case of Freemasonry for example, it can be noted that if certain common symbolic elements within the Prieure de Sion may come from a shared root, the same cannot be said for certain allegorical elements or for some nuances that can be glimpsed in certain specific ritual procedures, which testify to an influence that took place certainly after the establishment of modern Freemasonry, during those periods in which some Lodges linked to the Order also practiced the rituals of the Prieure de Sion on the occasion of their meetings.
All these traditional initiatory elements constitute the initiatory deposit of the Order and through a ritual reform of 2017 (comparable in substance to that of the United Grand Lodge of England – UGLE – in 1717), they came to constitute the philosophical, spiritual and initiatory system. which consists of the present-day inheritance of the Prieure de Sion. The purpose of this Initiation is the realization of being through three pivotal steps, Christian-Merovingian Initiation, Chivalric Initiation (achievement of the small mysteries and manifestation of the fruit of the teachings), Priestly Initiation (Great Mysteries, contemplation of one’s own state of achievement reached) . This initiatory system therefore carries out the function of raising awareness and realizing those psychological, cultural, moral and cognitive attributes, characteristic and distinctive of the original Knights who founded the Order.
This ritual presented in the book has an esoteric imprint and direction, tipycal of the purest initiatory system, which is why the historical component is peremptorily subjected to the symbolic-operative and allegorical one. The main elements delining the purpose of this ritual body are clearly the symbolic ones and secondarily, the allegorical in the more specific ritual implications, and all these elements have been ordered in an harmonius, coherent and finalized way, which does not undergo protocol compromises in a historical-celebratory sense, and is therefore organized according to the structural needs determined by its pure essence, having a unique structure among the existing traditions, while sharing a common root.
